Wife of US pastor held in Iran accuses Obama of nuclear deal 'betrayal'

White House under pressure to secure release of Saeed Abedini and two other
Americans

Pastor Bob Caldwell, left, prays with Naghmeh Abedini, center, wife of Saeed Abedini, and Tiffany Barrans, with the American Center for Law and Justice on the steps of the Capitol building in Boise, Idaho, in SeptemberPhoto: ADAM ESCHBACH/AP

By Raf Sanchez, Washington

8:07PM GMT 26 Nov 2013

The wife of an American pastor being held in Iran has accused the White House of betrayal for cutting a nuclear deal with Tehran without securing his release.

Saeed Abedini, a US citizen, was sentenced in January to eight years in prison on charges of undermining Iran's national security, allegedly by helping to organise an underground Christian church movement.

The 33-year-old's family and supporters hoped the US would demand that Iran release him and two other Americans as part of the agreement forged in Geneva over the weekend.

"I was watching President Obama's speech very carefully, hoping he was going to announce the release of the Americans, and it was very disappointing when he said nothing," Naghmeh Abedini, his wife, told the Telegraph.

"Our family is torn apart and I have to look in the faces of my kids and see their pain and know that my government in a way betrayed me and my husband at the time when we needed them the most."

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President Barack Obama raised the issue of Mr Abedini's imprisonment when he spoke to Hassan Rouhani, the new Iranian president, in September in the first direct contact between leaders of the two nations since 1979.

Since then there has been no clear progress and he has instead been transfered to Rajai Shahr Prison, a facility notorious for its violence between inmates.

"We consider it a dereliction of duty when you're across the table from the Iranian regime and you don't bring back the Americans that are being held captive," said Jay Suklow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, a conservative group that is championing Mr Abedini's cause.

The White House is also under pressure over the fate of two other Americans - Robert Levinson, a former FBI agent who disappeared in March 2007 and Amir Hektami, a former Marine jailed on spying charges.

Mr Levinson vanished while en route to Kish Island, an Iranian resort, while investing cigarette smuggling. Iran initially claimed he had been arrested but the government has since said it does not know where he is.

In April 2011, his family was sent photographs of him shackled, bearded, wearing an orange jumpsuit and holding cryptic signs in English.

The US has said it believes he is being held "somewhere in southwest Asia" but it remains unclear if Iran's security forces are directly behind his imprisonment.

As of Tuesday, the 65-year-old Mr Levinson has been held for 2,455 days, outstripping Terry Anderson's period of captivity at the hands of Lebanon's Hezbollah before his release in 1991.

The White House marked the milestone with a statement, saying: "We respectfully ask the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to assist us in securing Mr. Levinson’s health, welfare, and safe return."

His son, Dan Levinson also marked the day with an article in the Washington Post, saying it was "not possible to overstate the nightmare that the past six years, eight months have been".

The US has also previously called for the release of Amir Hekmati, 29, who spent four years in the Marines. He confessed in December 2011 to working as a CIA spy but has since said the confession was forced out of him with threats.